People tell me I’m white…

I really liked this image when I first stumbled across it. She has a beautiful smile, and their contrasting skin tone is aesthetically pleasing. I was less enamored of it when I dug into its source and discovered it came from a site called Black Girls White Slaves. Even though the photograph was unchanged, the fetishization of the racial elements spoiled it somewhat.

I don’t write about racial kinks here. I’m probably the least qualified person in the world to do so. I’m a white guy who grew up in a small English village, went to a very traditional homogeneous English university and now works in tech on the US West coast. That makes me both privileged and ignorant in this area. I have an instinctive discomfort when confronted with race based kinks, but I’ve never analyzed that deeply enough to figure out if it’s rooted in genuine intellectual problems with them or simple liberal squeamishness with the idea of making an issue of race.

That said, I will make one observation that’s very indirectly related to this area: When watching US television, you can always instantly tell the relationship pairings. It doesn’t matter if it’s an advertisement or a sitcom. There will always be a mix of races, and almost zero interracial couples. I didn’t set out to observe this, it was simply something that was obvious to me when I moved here and was surrounded by US culture. I don’t think it’s true for the actual people living here, but it’s certainly true for what they get to watch on television. I wouldn’t claim that as a causal factor in racial fetishes, but I suspect it’s symptomatic of the kind of cultural influences that create them.

Slave on a choke chain

For those that don’t recognize it, the post title is from a long running joke on the Colbert Report. Stephen will start with “I don’t see race. People tell me I’m white…” and then finish with some punchline featuring a white stereotype. For example – Now, I don’t see color. People tell me I’m white and I believe them because police officers call me “sir”. Or, check out this clip for another example.

Author: paltego

See the 'about' page if you really want to know about me.

2 thoughts on “People tell me I’m white…”

  1. the fetishization of the racial elements spoiled it somewhat.

    I understand your point, but there are so many factors that it’s difficult to sort out the ones that are “problematic” from the ones that are simply interesting.

    As a sort-of example of this, consider the fetishization of Nazi tropes. German mistresses, shiny SS uniforms, medical experimentation bondage settings, etc.

    I think that this more speaks to some aspect of human nature that we often find some kind of release in trying to place ourselves in some (contrived!) situation, without really understanding the circumstances which led to those situations.

    1. Well my feelings about the context of that image were entirely personal ones. Arguably the source should make no difference to the image itself, given it changes not a single pixel on it. I just felt disappointed more than anything. I enjoyed it in one context and then realized it had been created in another. It’s was kind of a “Oh, not this shit again..” response.

      The Nazi tropes are a little different, as there’s no mistaking the context they’re created in. There’s no rug being pulled out from under you. I actually don’t have an issue with those, as the trope seems to have been so re-used over the years (particularly in mainstream culture) that its context has changed (although I understand people who feel very differently). The imagery now stands for a kind of generic authoritarianism and boogie men (and women) rather than the actual mass murdering thugs of history.

      -paltego

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